Known for making up-close and personal paintings of the faces and genitals of live streamers and (mostly male) life models, Celia Hempton has long been interested in what intimacy looks like in our increasingly hybrid virtual/IRL world. In particular, when painting his last small-format works, the artist kept his gaze entirely in line. Of the eleven oils on display at Sultana, five are from the “Chatrandom” series, 2013–, and depict men Hempton met on the video chat site that gave the series its name. Made during the real time of each conversation, these portraits have an immediacy and a materiality that betray the distance from which they were painted. Hempton painted the other six works – a mix of interior and unpopulated exterior scenes – from live-streamed CCTV footage. More immaculate and carefully crafted (a result of the artist having more time with his non-sensitive subjects), these paintings constitute a new body of work and provide an interesting foil to hastily rendered portraits. Harnessing different aspects of the usually odd combination of connection and alienation that accompanies seemingly unlimited access to people and places online, Chatrandom paintings evoke a quick, liberating and consensual exchange while CCTV paintings depict a constant state of surveillance. secret.
Chatrandom’s website advertises its service as a free way to “talk and have fun, escape the stresses of your daily life, or feel connected after a long day at work”, but most users of the app (mostly men) are looking for anonymous sex. met. Because Hempton has different intentions, she often spends very little time with her subjects. If a conversation ends before she has finished a portrait, the artist will start a new painting on top of the unfinished one, always respecting the crop created by the webcam of her current subject. Constructed and reworked with smooth strokes of thick oils, these layered portraits evoke dizzying, theoretically endless rotation. Guangxi, China, July 20, 2022 (all works cited, 2022) highlights Hempton’s talent for capturing the essence of an ephemeral sitter with great economy. Using shades of dusty rose and brick red, she provides some identifying details – full lips with a deep Cupid’s bow and a Nike Swoosh logo tank top – but not enough to spoil the allure of anonymity, exacerbated by the subject’s face cut off just above his mouth. Expressionistic and haptic, Hempton’s depictions of people seeking online intimacy primarily appeal to our sense of touch, a sensation that the screen does not provide.
Meanwhile, Hempton’s landscapes and interiors depict designs that have been leaked online. This video footage inspired Hempton to slow down, experiment with different painting techniques and styles, and engage with art history. Jakarta, Indonesia, June 3, 2022, whose surface is encrusted with touches of blue, red and white, is an impressionistic view of haloed car headlights on a two-lane highway at night. The composition, palette and application of the paint immediately brought to mind Monet. Print, sunrise1872. Meanwhile, a simple yellow chair which is the inexplicable center of Douglas, Isle of Man, November 9, 2022recalls van Gogh’s famous self-portrait in a yellow chair (Van Gogh’s chair, 1888). Courting these and other loaded comparisons (with Edvard Munch and Alex Katz, among others) seems to be the artist’s way of turning his gaze inward. Even more intimate than her portraits, Hempton’s musings on surveillance tell us more than ever about her as a painter.
